The present invention relates to electron barrier diodes, and more particularly, to an asymmetric quantum well electron barrier diode
Rectifying current-voltage (I-V) characteristics have been observed in many types of electron barrier devices such as planar doped barrier diodes and Schottky barrier diodes. Schottky barrier diodes were the first such devices and remain the most attractive type for high-frequency applications because of their nearly ideal conduction characteristics and relative ease of fabrication. Schottky diodes are used in microwave circuits as mixers where a local oscillator waveform is combined with an incoming signal to produce a difference frequency known as the intermediate frequency. Several attempts have been made to produce conduction-band electron barrier potential devices which are in effect Schottky-like potentials buried in a bulk semiconductor. These devices have been explored in the hope that improved device characteristics could be achieved by moving the electron blocking potential away from the metal-semiconductor interface. One such early device was the camel diode which under went experimental evolution to become known eventually as the planar doped barrier diode. It has also been demonstrated that graded alloy devices exhibit similar diode behavior.